Meanwhile, Thunderbird comes pre-installed with the Lightning Calendar. While you can add network-based calendars to Lightning, this calendar doesn’t natively support read and write access to external calendars.

Let’s see how you can fully integrate Google Calendar with Thunderbird.

What You Need

Google Calendar integration requires two Thunderbird add-ons:

Lightning (pre-packaged as of Thunderbird 38) adds a Sunbird-type calendar to Thunderbird.

Note: If all you want is read access to a public calendar, you only need Lightning.

First, open the Thunderbird Tools Menu (hamburger icon) and under Add-ons > Extensions check whether you still need to install Lightning. Download the add-on/s you need, expand the cog icon, select Install Add-on From File…, browse to the download location, Open the add-on installation file, and click Install Now. To complete the installation, you’ll have to Restart Thunderbird.

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With Lightning installed, you should see the Lightning Calendar icon at the top right, next to the Tasks icon. Click the calendar icon to open the Lightning Calendar tab.

Add a Private Google Calendar

Choose On the Network > Google Calendar to add your own Google Calendar/s or Google Calendars shared with you.

Note: The Google Calendar option is only available after installing Provider for Google Calendar. You can still add public Google Calendars using the iCalendar (ICS) format, which offers read only access (see below).

In the following window (Locate your calendar) you either have to provide your Google email address, log into your account, and grant Provider for Google Calendar permission to manage your calendars OR — if you have previously done that — you can pick an existing Google session. Once you’re logged into your Google account, you should see a list of your Google Calendars.

Check the calendars you want to add, click Next, wait for the confirmation that Your calendar has been created, and click Finish.

You should now see Lightning populated with your Google Calendar events.

Let’s say you just want to view one of your Google Calendars. Open the Google Calendar web interface, expand My calendars, click the arrowhead next to one of the calendars, and select Calendar settings.

Now look for the Calendar Address and click the ICAL button.

Next, copy the ICAL address, i.e. the link ending in .ics.

Note: The ICAL ICS link only works if the calendar is public. In the example above, the calendar is actually private.

When you’re back in Thunderbird, select On the Network > iCalendar (ICS), enter the Location, i.e. the ICS link, and click Next.

Finalize calendar settings, like name, color, reminders, and associated email address, click Next again, and finally click Finish, if all worked out.

The Mozilla Wiki has a thorough page covering Provider of Google Calendar, including a section about bugs and limitations. You can also poke your head into the Google Group discussing further questions.

Add the Google Calendar Web Interface

If you’d rather not use the Lightning Calendar, you can use Google Calendar Tab to bring the Google Calendar web interface to Thunderbird. Essentially, you’re adding a browser window running Google Calendar.

Once installed, the familiar Google Calendar icon will appear at the top right. Click the icon to log into your Google account and access the Google Calendar web app. Now you can edit your calendars like you would in your browser.

In the add-on options, you can switch between Google Calendar and Google Apps for your domain. This is useful if you have a Google Apps account.

You could use an alternative extension that opens the Google Calendar web interface in a Thunderbird tab. This will give you live access to Google Calendar. The drawback is that it doesn't integrate with Thunderbird / Lightning / Tasks. Although you could set up both and enjoy the best of both worlds. Stay tuned as we're updating the article; the new version will include this method.

I'm a daily Thunderbird (Fossamail) user and it's been my experience that the provider breaks occasionally and gets fixed eventually. I've learned not to rely on it. Since I primarily use Google Calendar to see what other people are doing, this isn't a huge deal-breaker, but I wish calendar/contact syncing with online providers worked better generally than it does so that I could make a better case for Thunderbird as a general purpose (rather than "nerd power user") messaging application.

Thanks for the insight! I originally wrote this story back when Thunderbird was my main email client. Haven't used it in years and only had a short testing period for updating this article. This makes your comment super valuable!

Mickey C

January 6, 2010 at 4:47 am

All sounds exactly what i need.
can someone just clarify once 2 or 3 people have set this up they can all work from and edit the same calendar??
Or is this a simpler request that thunderbirds could do anyway???

could someone clarify: if I go offline, will all my Google Calendar events still show in Thunderbird after a restart? I'm running Vista and searching for a way to have bi-directional syncing with Thunderbird and GCal AND offline access in Thunderbird.

I have had to reinstall Jaunty and have lost the calendar functionality. I have TB 2.0.0.22 with lightning and Provider for Google Calendar installed just as I previously did but now File -> new -> calendar is greyed out as are all options under the Calendar menu.
Also the Calendar list is empty.
Please help

Rob,
when I view >Mail in Thunderbird the >File >New >Calendar option is greyed out as well.
Try to open the calender view through >Go >Calendar or click [CTRL] + [3]. Does that work? Once you are in calender view you should be able to create a new calendar through >File >New >Calendar.
Good luck!

Hi and thanks but no this doesn't fix the problem. I can get a calendar view which shows nothing in the calendar list and a calendar that shows today only and I can't move to another day or view, nor can I create a new calendar. this is really odd as it was humming along before I had to reinstall the OS.

I'm afraid I can't reproduce your error amd I'm running Windows. If you have already tried to entirely reinstall Thunderbird with only the necessary plugins/extensions for the calender and if that didn't work, I would recommend to describe your problem in a Linux or Mozilla forum.

Eric Nord

July 23, 2009 at 10:31 am

Rob

I have the same problem - it all worked under Hardy, then I upgraded to Jaunty, and no luck.

Tina

August 5, 2009 at 4:38 am

Thanks for providing a potential solution EEE! Hope it will work for everyone.

EEE

August 5, 2009 at 4:21 am

I had the same problem. To fix it I uninstalled Lightning and Google Calender Provider, then reinstalled lightning-extension using aptitude.

Rob Wales

August 5, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Hi EEE

Do you have the command line to install by Apt-get?

tia

NM

March 11, 2009 at 2:38 am

awesome, worked like a charm! sure I'll find bugs soon, but for now all is golden!

What is a bit unclear to me is the difference between "public" and "private" Google calendars for those of calendars that are shared, but only between a select group of people. Does anyone know what the difference is in this case?

I use Thunderbird on one of my Linux box to access emails from different sources. I'll try your approach to see how effectively I can get Google calendar into Thunderbird. Thanks for putting this together.

Hi Ramesh
I am an ubuntu newbi, switching from MS windows to Ubuntu.
I would like to install this calendar-synchronisation-feature into my Ubuntu.
I suppose I need linux compatible add-ons, other than the ones shown here.
I this correct ?? and can you give me a hint how to install them in my Ubuntu-Thunderbird ??
Thank you for helping me out !

Tina has been writing about consumer technology for over a decade. She holds a Doctorate in Natural Sciences, a Diplom from Germany, and an MSc from Sweden. Her analytical background has helped her excel as a technology journalist at MakeUseOf, where she's heading the Windows and Productivity sections.